Niskayuna High School

Since 1974,Now Weekly

April 30, 2004 Volume 30, Issue 24

Seniors, teachers recognized at banquet

Photo courtesy Edward Granka

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: Seniors Kyle Johnston, left, and Julie Granka,second fromright, were recognized last week at the CASDA awards dinner asthe top students in the graduating class. They selected English teacherPatricia Rand and Math teacher Christopher Monahan as their favoriteteachers. Rand and Monahan were also selected two years ago.

by Sarita UpadhyayNEWS

This year’s Annual Schol-ars’ Recognition Programaward for academic excellencewas given to seniors JulieGranka and Kyle Johnston.They celebrated at the Schol-ars’ Recognition Program Din-ner with the teachers whomthey selected as most influen-tial, math teacher ChristopherMonahan and English teacherPatricia Rand, on WednesdayApril 21.

The award is given by theBusiness and EducationPartnership every year toexceptional seniors from allthe public, private, paro-chial, and BOCES HighSchools within 11 counties.The students who are se-lected must present excel-lent records in scholarship,leadership, citizenship, andservice. Each student thenselects the teacher who hashad the largest impact on hisor her high school career. Theselected students, their fami-

lies, and their teachers thenattend a banquet, this yearheld at a local Holiday Inn.Both the accomplished stu-dents and the teachers whohelped them along the wayare honored. This year fea-

tured guest speaker andPresident of Empire StateCollege Robert Moore, whospoke to the guests about howmuch both parents and teach-ers are able to influence stu-dents’ academic lives.

This year’s recipients,Granka and Johnston, haveeach chosen a teacher whomthey believe has gone aboveand beyond any of their otherteachers. Granka chose her cur-rent math teacher, Monahan,

because “He has helped mebecome a more independentthinker. Unlike many otherteachers, he makes me searchfor the answers instead ofspoon feeding them to me.”Monahan, who has receivedthis award twice in previousyears, asserted “Julie is athinker. It’s not enough forher to say ‘I got the answer’;she needs to know how shearrived at it. That’s some-thing I really appreciate.”

Johnston chose Rand as hismost influential teacher,stated “There are an infiniteamount of things I could sayabout such a great teacher.Overall, I learned more about

writing, the English language,and myself than in any other

(continued page 3,STUDENTS)

by Leanne MerrillNEWS

The Niskayuna High School Sym-phonic Band, travelled with director EricHughes, and the Jazz Ensemble, withit’s director, David Fisk, traveled to NewYork City to play in the Lincoln Centerfor the Performing Arts Plaza, on Fri-day, April 23.

After leaving school at 10 AM, themusicians arrived at the performancevenue at 1:45. The Symphonic Band wasslated to play first in the hour-long pro-gram. It opened with its longest piece, aW.J. Duhoit arrangement of West SideStory, which was originally written byStephen Sondheim and LeonardBernstein. The students then played sev-eral other pieces of band literature, alongwith the Star Spangled Banner.

The Jazz Ensemble then performed It’s

Music groups play NYC Lincoln CenterYou or No One by Sammy Cahn and JuelStein, as well as Splanky by Neal Hefti.

Hughes explained how he came acrossthe opportunity in an advertisement in apublication for the “Young Music Mak-ers on the Plaza” program, and immedi-ately jumped on the rare chance. “Thebest part is that everything went flaw-lessly,” said Hughes, “I hope to do itagain in the future.”

Playing outside was difficult, consid-ering it was very windy. Clothespinsand masking tape were handed out tothe instrumentalists to help them holdtheir music on the stands. Sometimes,however, even these measures did notwork. Recounted junior JennDuesterdick, “Just as we were going toplay this solo part, a big gust of wind cameup and blew the music off the stand.”

After the performances, the students

loaded onto the buses and were thenable to choose one of two options. Theycould either explore and shop in TimesSquare, which is about twenty blocksaway from Lincoln Center, or stay in theLincoln Center area and visit variousstores. “We went to a lot of corner shops,”said Duesterdick. “We had a lot of fun.”Sophomore flautist Rachel Goldsteinagreed wholeheartedly, saying, “It wasfun- we went to Toys R Us and we playedwith all the stuffed animals.”

The two groups dined in their respec-tive areas and then met back at LincolnCenter. They were scheduled to see theNew York Philharmonic perform inAvery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center forthe Performing Arts. The Philharmonicwas under the direction of Sir Colin

(continued page 2,Symphonic)

2 News April 30, 2004 The Warrior

by Julia NapolitanoNEWS

Seven students fromNiskayuna High School com-peted in the New York StateForensic League tournament onFriday April 23, and Saturday,April 24. The tournament, anannual, statewide competitionrun by the National Forensicsleague, serves as a qualifyingopportunity to advance to theNational Forensics Champion-ship Tournament in late May.

The Forensic League is anorganization encompassingmany categories in which stu-dents can compete. There aretwo official Forensic Leaguesthat are affiliated with eachother: The National ForensicLeague and the National Catho-lic Forensic League. They dif-

fer slightly in divisions offeredand certain judging policies. Atthe State Tournament, studentsfrom all around New York con-vene to participate in the manycategories, some of which otherparticipants are unfamiliar, de-pending on which Nation Leaguetheir school subscribes to.

The two primary divisions ofForensics are Debate andSpeech. Unlike at local tourna-ments, which are held at vari-ous schools throughout theyear, Debate and Speech wereheld in separate locations thispast weekend; the former atLivingston Magnet Academy,the latter at Albany HighSchool. Debaters were busedto Albany High on Saturdayevening for the Awards As-sembly, which recognized the

top three competitors in eachcategory.

Coaches ChristopherChadwick and LoralynneKrobetzky, and Forensics orga-nizer Jane Carol Glendinningaccompanied the competing stu-dents.

Response from participantswas generally enthusiastic.Commented freshman AnjanaTayi, “It was an enjoyable expe-rience to meet all these peoplewho are all so equally good com-pared to local and some collegetournaments.”

Between rounds (there werefive for both Debate and Speechbefore elimination rounds), stu-dents gathered in the schools’cafeterias and gymnasiums.The days provided ample oppor-tunity to meet many other stu-

Davis, and the program included severalvocal works, sung by renowned mezzo-so-prano Anne Sofie von Otter. The first half of the program consisted ofmusic composed by Hector Berlioz, a nine-teenth century French composer. The firstpiece performed was an 1826 overture, fol-lowed by three vocal works. After the inter-mission, the Philharmonic played severalpieces by Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composerwho lived from 1865 until the 1950s. Two ofthe pieces were purely orchestral, while threeother songs were sung in Finnish. Said sopho-more trumpet player Paul Pedicone, “TheNew York Philharmonic was awesome.”Goldstein agreed, saying “[the Philharmonic]was really phenomenal, it was amazing tolisten to and they were really talented.”Students also were impressed with thesoloist’s ability to memorize songs in sucha complex language as Finnish. The con-cert concluded with a relatively brief, one-movement Sibelius symphony, thecomposer’s seventh.

The trip turned out to be positive on manylevels. “My favorite part was the Philhar-monic,” said Duesterdick. Said Goldstein,summing up her enjoyable experience, “Myfavorite part was hanging out witheverybody…and Mr. Hughes.”

dents and reconnect with thosewhom had become familiar fromprevious local tournaments. AtAlbany High School, entertain-ment was provided by the NyodaStep Dance Group before theevening presentation of awards.Those students who did not ad-vance to final rounds had theoption of participating in vari-ous activities, such as the “Im-promptu Competition” offeredat Albany High.

Abby Alger, a junior, placedsecond in the state in VarsityLD Debate.

Niskayuna High School’sForensics team is already ea-ger and planning for next year,and is hoping to have moremembers to join in the fun. Ifyou are interested, visit theclub’s homeroom in G200.

(Continued from page one, MUSIC)

Symphonic Band, JazzEnsemble, experienceNew York City

Students go to Forensics State contestNHS Forensics members participate in annual competition

AFS Internationalis looking for

Niskayuna familiesto host foreign ex-change students intheir homes for the2004-2005 school

year. Hosting is anextremely rewarding experience which can allowall parties involved to bridge cultural gaps, whilegiving participants the opportunity to meet stu-

dents from countries throughout the world.

If you have any questions or would like moreinformation, please contact Shannon Quinn orJulia Schnell, or feel free to come to room C209

during homeroom.

www.AFS.org

Is your familyinterested in hosting a

foreign exchange student?

3NewsApril 30, 2004The Warrior

Long time library copier rests in peace

(Continued from page 1, SENIORS)class I’ve ever taken.” Rand, a second timeaward winner, proudly stated thatJohnston “is an extraordinary young man.He’s intelligent, insightful, compassion-ate, and well-rounded.” Rand also includedthat she appreciated the program for notonly isolating the hardworking students,but also incorporating the dedicated par-ents and teachers. She also added that shewas at the banquet as “a representative ofall the people who shaped the student.”

Both teachers were honored to be se-lected by their students. “Anytime a stu-dent selects you as having a large impacton their learning, it is the greatesthonor that a teacher could receive,”stated Monahan. Rand agreed, adding “Iknow the caliber of Kyle’s teachers andto be picked as the most influential wasan honor.” Both the students and teach-ers seemed to enjoy the banquet, asMonahan affirmed “It was a really en-joyable experience because I got to knowwhere the kids are from and what theirlives are like. We all had a really niceconversation over dinner. These studentshave worked really hard and deserve tobe recognized.” The banquet turned outas a success, as almost all of the 118students who were acknowledged were

Award given to students,their favorite teachers

by Evan BallanNEWS

Niskayuna High Schoolmay never be the same afterthe faithful copying machinethat has resided for years inthe Media Center retired lastweek. The Canon NP 6221made its last copy, and nowsits idly in the back of theMedia Center next to the pa-per cutter. It has been re-placed by a newer and fanciercopier which mystifies stu-dents with the hypnotic greenglow it emits while makingcopies (which The Warriortimed at approximately 7 sec-onds per copy in trial, com-pared to the faster speedboasted by the company’swebsite). The new machine,the Konica 7022, allegedly ca-pable of printing 22 pages perminute, one page faster than

its predecessor, has been on atrial run with students this pastweek, and earned mixed reviews.“It’s a tricky machine,” com-

mented freshman Anjana Tayi ,having had difficulty getting asheet to print, attributing the prob-lem to the fact that “you don’t

know when it comes out.”Freshman Eugenia Gisin hada different point of view. “I feelmore confident,” she said, “be-cause it’s quicker.” Gisin alsoadded that the old machine“had a really bad smell afteryou used it.”

Has new technology out-dated the old machine to apoint at which it’s no longerin the minds of the students?With a fancier copier thatcan do more pages per minuteand has a top loading tray forconvenient access, has theformer copier been com-pletely forgotten? SophomoreCourtney Woods seems tothink so. “I didn’t even knowwe had one,” she commented

of the old machine. How doesthe copier feel about com-ments such as Woods’? Whenasked, its silence spoke vol-umes.

able to attend. As Rand said, “It wasoverwhelming to be surrounded by somuch talent.”

This is the second time that Rand and

Monahan have been honored togtherfor this award. They were last honoredby graduates Brian Dashew andCassendra Wolos in 2002.

Warrior photo / Evan Ballan

SLOPPIER COPIER: After a long term of service, the old copy machinepictured here has been replaced by a newer, more efficient model.

4 Opinion4 Opinion

The Warrior

The Warrior is published each Fri-day the high school has classes (33times a year).

For a one-year subscription, senda check for $25 payable to NiskayunaHigh School to The Warrior, Attn:Subscriptions, 1626 Balltown Rd.,Niskayuna, NY 12309.

Niskayuna High School1626 Balltown RoadNiskayuna, NY 12309

(518) 382-2511, Ext. 351http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/nhs/

warrior/

T H E S TA F FEDITORS-IN-CHIEF: Tae Andrews,

Elspeth EdelsteinNEWS EDITORS: Jesse Conti, Leanne

Merrill, Julia Napolitano, JeremyWolos

ASST. NEWS: Nate StaudingerOPINION EDITORS: Kishori Rajan, Alec

WilsonASST. OPINION: Evan BallanENTERTAINMENT EDITOR: Stephanie

Blair, Matt LarkinSPORTS EDITORS: Jonathan Chow, Lisa

D’AnielloASST. SPORTS: Peter ChalfinMAGAZINE EDITORS: Alice Lee, Anna Yu,

Kathryn FantauzziASST. MAGAZINE: Anjana RajanGRAPHICS COORDINATOR: Evan FenaroliDISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Jackie NguyenBUSINESS MANAGER: Erik DonhoweADVERTISING MANAGER: Jonas ChangWeb Site Manager: Scott BrainardCOPY EDITOR: Abby AlgerADVISORS: James Edgar, Russell

McDowell

EDITORIAL POLICIES

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR are wel-come from all members of theschool community. The Warriorreserves the right to edit lettersfor grammar and length.

SIGNED OPINION ARTICLES AND CAR-TOONS express the opinions oftheir creators.

UNSIGNED EDITORIALS representthe consensus of the paper’s edito-rial board, which may not reflectthe majority of the students’ views.

THE OP-ED PAGES are a forum forstudents’ opinions and ideas.

April 30, 2004 The Warrior

by Michael ChowOPINION

Shortly after the horrific bombings ofMadrid, former Prime Minister JoseMaria Aznar and his party lost the Span-ish election. Replacing him is a socialistcalled Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.During his campaign, Zapatero calledfor Spain to pull its troops out of Iraq.Now that he has taken office, he is pull-ing out troops by June 30, unless theUnited States relinquishes control of Iraqto the United Nations. Zapatero’s posi-tion is radically different from Aznar’s,as the former president staunchly sup-ported the United States’ War on Terror,and he is currently sending the wrongmessage to terrorists.

The terrorists committed these attacksto intimidate the voters into voting Aznarout of the presidential office. The mes-sage that is sent to terrorists is thattheir attacks work. Spain is trying toappease these terrorists. Spain hopesthat by showing that it is backing awayfrom its alliance with the United States,it will encourag the terrorists to finallyleave its people alone. This, however, willonly make mattersworse. Terrorists, see-ing that their attackswere effective, willjust use them againagainst other nationssuch as the UnitedStates and England.

Spain’s withdrawal of troops from Iraqalso sends the message to terrorists thatterrorist attacks work. It tells the terror-ists that the Spanish are lacking in re-solve to fight the War on Terror

by Joshua XiongOPINION

“You chose disgrace in fear of war, yougot disgrace and war as well.”

Powerful words by Winston Churchill,reflecting on Neville Chamberlain’s ap-peasement policy at Munich, a concession

to Hitler. Thankfully,those words do not ap-ply to Spain today. Re-

cently, Spain endureda deadly assault on itsrailways, at the handsof a group linked to AlQaeda. With this occur-

ring only three days prior to presidentialelections, opinions of voters swayed heavilyin favor of Socialist candidate, Jose RuisRodriguez Zapatero, who not only opposedthe war in Iraq in 2003 but echoed theopinion of the majority of the populace atthat time. Following this string of events,Zapatero was elected into office, and an-nounced his intent to withdraw Spain’stroops from Iraq unless power was handedover to the United Nations by June 30.What has followed is an abundance of an-gry protests at Spain’s act of “appease-ment”. What we need to realize, however, isthat it wasn’t appeasement at all.

There are two things that many journal-ists have failed to address in Zapatero’sannouncement, the first being that he indi-cates the heightened role of the UN. Weneed to remember that multi-lateral ef-forts to fight terrorism are neither ineffec-tive nor impossible. By highlighting theUN, Zapatero is not suggesting backingdown in fear of the terrorists, but a messageto its allies that if the war on terror will eversucceed, it must be done multilaterally.(Continued on page 5, WITHDRAWAL) (Continued on page 5, WITHDRAWAL)

Is removal of troop divisions justified?

How to deal with that end-of-year stress It’s spring again- warm breezes, flip

flops, the reopening of ice cream stands,horrible, nail-biting stress...oh, right. APs.Regents. Nightmarish fi-nals. And do the letters S-A-T ring any bells? And, ofcourse, girls, make surethose dress fitting appoint-ments are scheduled way before May 8.

It’s incredibly hard to stay focused whenthe weather is so nice and the high-pitchfever of prom is screaming at its loudestdecibel, and equally difficult not to burn outbefore exams even begin. So, here are sometips to help: 1) Carry a bottle of wateraround. Staying hydrated will keep you

refreshed. 2) Take regular stretching breakswhile you study. This will help your bloodcirculation and reinvigorate you. 3) At the

beginning of each week, sit downand schedule out your time. In-clude all committments, and besure to include driving and preptime. This will help you plan

out a study schedule that works best for you.Make flashcards for those car rides/lunchlines/boring classes. 4) Last, but not least,seize hold of your instincts. Go to sleep whenyou’re exhausted. Go outside when theweather is too nice to stay indoors. Remem-ber, high school is not supposed to be astorturous as it sometimes seems.

EDITORIAL

Spain pulls out of Iraq war

5OpinionApril 30, 2004The Warrior

Withdrawal of troops promotes controversyZapatero is merely announcinga safer, smarter, more effectiveway of combating terrorism. Iraqhas become a battleground forterror. However, no one, havinglooked at the UN’s track record,should question its ability to re-construct war-torn nations andband nations together in suc-cessful peace-keeping efforts. Ineffect, by drawing on the re-sources of the UN, we could solvethe problem of the terrorism cellsin Iraq. The UN provides a soundinfrastructure and a more vi-able and effective solution tothe different ethnic disagree-ments in Iraq. For, if we have astable nation rebuilt by a le-gitimate coalition, we elimi-nate battleground for terror-ists in Iraq.

Also, Zapatero has not saidhe would withdraw intelligenceor abstain from aiding the US inits effort to eliminate terroristcells worldwide. Following his

and they will try to appeaseterrorists. It is like when abully intimidates you into giv-ing up a dollar. Once he hasrealized that you will breakunder pressure, he will comeback for more and more andmore. This same situation canbe applied to Spain. Once theterrorists have realized thattheir method is working andcreating fear among the Span-ish people, they will do itagain and again in order tomake the Spanish populacedo something unfavorable.Spaniards are at the mercy ofthe terrorism unless theybreak the cycle and stand upagainst it.

The policy of appeasementwill not work because it onlydelays the inevitable. For in-stance, authorities recentlyfound a bomb on the railroadtracks in Spain- another ter-rorist act even with the with-

Continued from page 4,SPAIN (YES)

“appeasement” declaration,Zapatero announced thatSpain’s “immediate priority is tofight terrorism in all its forms”.Spain has not backed down onthe effort to fight terrorism as itcontinues to aid in destroyingAl-Qaeda cells and heightens ef-forts trace the perpetrators ofthe Madrid Bombings.

The announcement in itselfwas a good use of diplomacy.What it did was right a wrongby sending a message to theBush administration thatunilateralism, deceit, andOrwellian techniques will notprevail in the war on terror. Byswitching to the strategy of theFrench and Germans in moreeffectively and legitimatelyfighting terror, Zapatero hasmade it clear that the Bush ad-ministration does not have theauthority, or ability, to handlethe reconstruction efforts in Iraq,and that it does not have thesupport of its allies when it bla-tantly disregards the UN.

Continued from page 4,SPAIN (NO)

drawal of troops from Iraq.Iraq is the center of the waron terror, whether the war isjustifiable or not. Terrorismtakes place every day there.Spain’s withdrawal is a sym-bolic move that representsthat Spain is not fully behindus in the war on terror andnot helping the United Statesas a close ally. Although Spainmay send more troops into Af-ghanistan, Iraq is the battle-ground for terrorism, as shownwith the recent hostage situa-tions and attacks on civilianheadquarters. The removal ofSpanish troops in Iraq sets aprecedent for other nations inthe coalition such as Poland toalso withdraw troops and singleout the American troops forattack. Appeasement is a dan-gerous policy and the PrimeMinister of Spain’s decisionto pull out troops from Iraqshows that the new govern-ment in Spain is trying toappease the terrorists.

Letter to the EditorStudent raises concerns over quality of Warrior art

To the Editors:As the end to my four eventful years

at Niskayuna High School ap-proaches, I find myself becoming la-zier every day. To a studious youngman like myself, who has been takingenough accelerated and AP courses(in the hopes of slacking off this year,of course), this meant having enoughfree time to be able to read The War-rior much more thoroughly than Iever have in the past three years. Atfirst, I cherished this opportunity asone of the enjoyable symptoms ofsenioritis. Now, I don’t have to wastemy precious homeroom time study-ing for the chemistry test or doinglast-minute homework. It was timefor me to start reading The Warrior.

However, our dearly loved newspa-per most unfortunately fails to ap-peal to my eyes when I open it everyFriday. An artist myself, I could nothelp but notice the paper’s severelack of decent graphics. The hand-drawn pictures always follow one of

these archetypes: a person thinking ofthe subject of the article; a hodgepodgeof objects seemingly random, yet re-lated to the article in some obscure andtrivial way; or simply a set of absolutelyincoherent lines and shapes that do notresemble anything at all. A part of theproblem seems to be the use of pens orpencils, media that can easily get lost inthe copying process. The result is quasi-complete eyesores that you call clipart.It is my opinion that an introduction ofa more definitive medium, such as mark-ers, to these drawings is a necessity.

As I have implied above, the picturesare in a dire need of variety. I smirkedat the cover of Silver in the April 23issue, which I noticed to be a very un-satisfactory montage of no more thansix photographs. From my experience,I’m confident that most people readingThe Warrior pay absolutely no atten-tion to the artwork because it has beenextremely monotonous, repetitive, bor-ing, cliche and other adjectives thatrepel attention.

Honestly, I would not even careabout the pictures if they weren’t soridiculously huge on the pages. Forexample, on page 6 of the April 23issue, a giant picture of...nevermind.Anyway, the artwork was inserted inunnecessarily gargantuan propor-tions, taking up about half of the pagewith blank space. That’s right: half apage of nothing. At this point, I amsure some of you are asking “Can youdo any better?”. The answer is yes.But that is far besides my point. I ampointing out that the quality of theWarrior’s artwork has hit the rockbottom. Don’t get me wrong; I am notcriticizing the artists, nor saying thattheir work is totally substandard. AllI assert is that you can make thispaper look a little more interesting,and less embarrassing, so I can bragabout how my school’s newspaper hadthe killer style when I go to college.

-Young YoonClass of 2004

6 Entertainment April 30, 2004 The Warrior

Kill Bill Volume 2Rated R, Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Starring Uma Thurman, David Carradine,Michael Madsen

136 Minutes

Rating:

Kill Bill Volume 2: Tarantino’s masterpiece

by Matt LarkinENTERTAINMENT

The second of the two KillBill volumes was released twoweeks ago, accompanied bylots of buzz and hype. LastOctober, writer/directorQuentin Tarantino releasedhis fourth film, Kill Bill Vol-ume 1, receiving much praiseand box office success. Thecontinuation of the story hasalso done well, opening up asthe Number One movie in thenation and being lauded asTarantino’s masterpiece.

The first volume introducesus to the character of theBride, played by UmaThurman, whose identity wedo not know. Very little of themajor plot is revealed to theviewers, who are forced topiece things together on theirown bit by bit.

We knowthat theBride is outfor revenge,obviously forBill, yet thereare severalother sub-plots in-v o l v e d ,shaped by thepeople theBride encoun-

ters on her way to “kill Bill.”The movie makes up for not

telling the whole story withfast-paced, intense, violentaction scenes. UnlikeTarantino’s other movies, likePulp Fiction, that featuremostly gun violence, Kill Billis filled with martial arts andincredible swordfights.

In Volume Two, we learn agreat deal more about theBride, including her name,why she is seeking revenge,and how all the charactersrelate to each other. The vio-lence and action is pushedaside in favor of the enthral-ling storyline and dialogueTarantino has crafted. Don’tget me wrong, there’s stillplenty of violence, but it isnicely complemented by sev-eral surprises in the plot.

Now, the title of the film

gives most of thestory away beforeyou’ve even en-tered the theater.But it is thesubtle subplotsand shocks thatmake the movieso great.

Simply put,Thurman’s perfor-mance is Oscar-worthy. She takesdialogue thatsome might con-sider corny andmakes it a rivet-ing part of the film.Perhaps the rea-son behind hergreat performanceis that she createdthe character and the story ofthe Bride with Tarantino. Andshe looks pretty cute in thattight yellow tracksuit, too.

Complementing Thurman’sperformance with his own bril-liance is David Carradine, aformer Kung Fu actor who por-trays Bill in the film. In Volume1, we never see and rarely hearBill, leaving the viewer withquestions and allowing his char-acter to truly flourish in the sec-ond film. I can’t say much aboutCarradine’s performance beyondthat it is incredible and also

Oscar-worthy.The man behind it all is

Tarantino, who has created agenre of his own through hisperfect writing and direction. Hehas been known for crazystorylines where the ending isprobably what you least ex-pected. He has admitted to brain-storming about a possible KillBill Volume 3, in which thedaughter of a victim of theBride’s would come back to seekrevenge on her fifteen yearslater, continuing the theme ofsweet revenge.

JUST PLAYING, KIDDO: Bill (David Carradine)finally encounters the bloodthirsty Bride.

Photo courtesy outnow.ch

WHERE”S THE WAGON?: Uma Thurman has revenge on her mind.Photo courtesy outnow.ch

DON”T EVEN WIGGLE YOUR BIG TOE: Bill, meet The Bride.Photo courtesy outnow.ch

SportsThe Warrior April 30, 2004 7Girls’ lacrosse showing depth once againby Jon Chow

SPORTS

With half the season stillremaining, the girls ’ la-crosse team plans to improveupon its winning record (5-1as of this past Monday).With its core strength in jun-iors and a small number ofseniors, the team has thusfar only lost to SuburbanCounci l powerhouseGuilderland, with the defeatcoming in a match held lastThursday.

Led by third year coachPeter Melito, the team hasthe ultimate goal of winningSectionals. “We have a veryyoung team this year , ”Melito explained, “[but] weare getting better with ev-ery practice.” Seven play-ers return from last year’s7-6 team, only four of whomreceived significant playingtime last year. However,

what the team lacks in ex-perience it makes up for withhard work and dedication.Led by senior captainsMarissa Testa, Carrie Downand Sarah Stempek, theteam often stays after theconclusion of practice to getsome extra work in. “Theyare committed to success,”commented Melito. “Everygirl is a leader. The fresh-men, the sophomores, theyare all willing to speak andeveryone listens,” he added. Last Tuesday the girlsplayed their best game sofar this season, beatingAverill Park for the secondtime. “That was the gamewhere we put everything to-gether,” Coach Melito said.“We clicked on both offenseand defense and real lyplayed well as a team.” Unfortunately,the teamfollowed up this impressive

per formance with the irworst game of the season, a13-3 loss to Guilderland lastThursday. Unlike last year, Melito nowhas the luxury of having andassistant coach in Kristen

N e a r y .Neary, agraduateo fNiskayuna,was amember ofthe firstNiskayunagirls la-c r o s s eteam backin 1994.She thenwent on toplay de-fense incollege atHartwick.Neary isvery ex-

cited to be back involved withNiskayuna lacrosse, saying,“It’s a great experience, and itsbeen lots of fun. It is a greatopportunity.”Neary agrees that the teamsuffers from inexperience butis confident that they are ca-pable of achieving their ulti-mate goal of winning the sec-tion. “It’s good for the girls tohave someone with experiencethat has been through the pro-gram,” Melito said of Neary.“She knows a lot about thegame.” While Carrie Down planson playing for Cornell nextyear and Sarah Stempekhopes to play for the clubteam at Rhode Island, themain focus of the girls onthe team is the remainder ofthis season. The Lady War-riors next home game is to-n ight , under the lights,against non-league foeQueensbury.

YOU WAN’ PLAY GAME?: Sara Stempek leads the Warrior attack

CHICKS WITH STICKS: Coach Melito’s star team has performed at a high level this season.

Warrior photo / Jon Chow

Warrior photo / Jon Chow

8 Sports April 30, 2004 The Warrior

Throwing one down for Slam Duncan

With .500 record, tennis team aims high

by Tae AndrewsSPORTS

The National BasketballAssociation’s M.V.P. awardisn’t for the most brilliant per-former of the year, or eventhe player who improved themost at an elite level. Theaward is given to the playerwho is the most valuable tohis team. The Andre 3000 tohis Outkast, if you will. The50 Cent to his G-Unit. TheDave Thomas to his Wendy’s.It’s somewhat akin to pickinga spouse; you can’t go for theone you can live with, youhave to go for the one youcan’t live without. And theSan Antonio Spurs can’t livewithout Tim Duncan.

Without their JustinTimberlake, the Spurswouldn’t be N’Sync. As al-ways, T-Dunc quietly man-aged to put up stellar num-bers during the regular sea-son, averaging 22.3 points pergame, to go with 12.4 re-bounds and 2.7 blocks. WhileMinnesota’s Kevin Garnetthad slightly better numbers

(24.2 points and 13.9 re-bounds), his season was dra-matically boosted by the ar-rival of two impact players,Latrell Sprewell and SamCassell.

The T-Wolves this seasonresembled a sloppy jalopy re-tooled on “Pimp My Ride.”Picking up Spree and Cassellgave Minnesota a pair of provenscorers to help take some of theload off of KG. By contrast, allDuncan picked up were strayhitchhikers Rasho Nesterovicand Hedo Turkoglu. Mean-while, the development of fel-low Spurs Manu Ginobili andTony Parker was consistentlyinconsistent all season, goingfrom brilliant to boo on a nightlybasis. At any rate, they are notnearly polished professionalsof the caliber Sprewell andCassell are. Plus, Duncan andthe Spurs were forced to dropoff veteran center DavidRobinson at the retirementhome.

Tim Duncan, despite being7’2” and the two-time reign-ing MVP, has been signifi-

cantly over-looked inthis year’sMVP race.In fact,m a n yleague in-siders feelthat it isKG’s to lose.D u n c a ndoesn’t playwith theflash andflare of KobeBryant, northe seethingdominationof Garnett.He doesn’thave a sickcrossover, ora fearsometomahawkslam. Whathe does haveis a bankshot which is pure cash, bru-tally efficient fundamentalplay in the post, and a 2:2bling-to-ring championshipratio. For his prodigious play,

by Jon ChowSPORTS

With the Suburban Council Champi-onships and Sectionals fast approach-ing, the boys’ varsity tennis team is look-ing strong after a respectable start. Be-fore the season even started, there wasmuch worry as to how the team wouldreplace the void of Albert Alant andChanwoo Park, two key players in lastyear’s lineup who are now attending theUniversity of Buffalo, and the Univer-sity of Rochester, respectively. How-ever, freshman Chris Down and sopho-mores Steve Sommers and Eric Zhouhave all stepped up to fill the gap andhave posted impressive victories in themain lineup.

The team lineup is stacked with sevenseniors: senior captains Jon Chow andAaron Mednick, Dave Massa, KevinO’Connor, Evan Fenaroli, and ChrisPierpont. In addition, four juniors, Jacoband Greg Goldberg, Mo Wolfe, and AmolMetha are all returning from last year.

With this strong lineup, the teamopened up the season with a 9-0 sweep at

home against Columbia. Down, Zhou,and Summers posed their first victory onthe varsity squad as doubles players.In the next match, the team routedAverill Park 8-1 even while not usingall of its first-string players. “We re-ally gained a lot of confidence fromthese wins. And showed everyone whatNisky tennis is all about,” said sopho-more Steve Chao.

Then the team had to play the two-time defending Section II champions,Shen. The team had not notched avictory against them in four years, andlost to them 8-1 in last year’s Sectionalchampionship. After Massa suffered a6-3, 6-2 loss at #3 singles, Chow lev-eled the match at 1-point apiece whenhe defeated Tony Piro, the #25th rankedplayer in the nation. Previously, Chowhad a 0-4 personal record against Piro.After wins from O’Connor, Chao, and thedoubles duo of Summers and BrandonBartell, the score was 4-3 with twomatches remaining. Number six singlesplayer Down was within two points ofclosing his match and clinching the vic-

tory, as was the number three doublespair of Patel and Pierpont. However,both lost their matches in a tight thirdset. Nevertheless, the team was upbeatabout their 4-5 performance against thetop ranked team in the section.

With the Suburban Council Champi-onships starting today, the team is hop-ing that some members can clinch someof the four spots available to qualifyfor Sectionals. Each school is allowedto send four singles players and fourdoubles teams to the tournament. Sofar, Chow is the only definite singlesentrant and Mednick and O’Connorare the only definite doubles team.Individual Sectionals follow the weekafterward, and Team Sectionals fol-low that. The team is hoping that theywill be able to repeat last year’s ac-complishment of upending two seedsin the tournament and finishing sec-ond. With the impressive resultagainst Shen recently, the team has thepotential to take the Section II crown,and be the first tennis team in five yearsto accomplish this feat.

Photo courtesy espn.com

ONE MORE: Tim Duncan’s play has been worthy of athird consecutive MVP award.

commitment to impregnableteam defense, and stolid lead-ership, Duncan has more thanearned the right to defend hisMVP award.